Beauty Berry

This bush is supposed to be great for deer. I have a lot of it on a hunting area but I have never ever seen a deer eat any of this plant. Has anyone actually seen deer eat this and when?

Deer have eaten French Mulberry everywhere I've hunted. Some folks say they don't eat it on their place, either.

Beauty berry is not mulberry trees

French mulberry is the same as American beautyberry.

I have seen them eat it....a lot!

I have watched them in cutovers walk up and nibble at all they could reach and then straddle the plant and walk 'over' it to bend it down and then eat off the tops.

As a Wildlife biologist I know what I’ve been told and read but I’ve never seen any evidence they even glance at it.

I do recall seeing a little pressure on B.B. one time in a cutover with an extremely high deer density, but they were eating things they normally don’t eat.

I've seen some pretty good browsing on it, usually later in the year.

I've seen the beauty berry bushes heavily cropped, and always assumed that it was deer that had eaten them.....can't say I've ever seen them eat it though. On another note, the leaves of the beauty berry bush are supposed to be a natural insect repellent. That's gotta be worth something, especially if you forget your thermacell.

https://www.motherearthnews.com/nat...ry-natural-insect-repellent-zmaz09amzraw

I Am finding piles of poop loaded with these berries in a few areas I hunt.

I've never seen it browsed on our place, either.

When it was still alive this was the case for me too. Huge piles of poop loaded with beauty berry.

Yes they do goober. Now, it's not what I would call a highly attractive plant for them. But, I have watched several eat ABB out in thinned/burned pine plantations.

Just telling you what I’ve seen gooberette.

It is not deer ice cream like I’ve heard it called for dang sure.

So do ya'll think they eat it when everything else is about gone, like birds and privet berries?

From what I’ve seen, deer will eat dang near anything……it’s just a matter of if they have to eat it or not. I’ve never seen them touch beauty berry here at my place but then again they have plenty to eat here for the amount of deer present.

My Russell County place was slap covered up with it. It was so thick under the planted pines I had to bush hog shooting lanes in it just to be able to see deer in it. Never once have I seen a deer even nibble on it. Now that the place is clear cut, hopefully it will grow back quickly so the deer will have some cover whether they eat it or not. Place is as barren as the damn surface of the moon.

Lots of it on my place in Baldwin Co. Never seen deer fool with it here, but my goats absolutely love it.

A deer is nothing but brown-haired, white-tailed goat. They eat it, depending on the availability of other browse